W. Virginia coach: 'We got outathleted' by USF

What is it with Big East coaches making verbs out of nouns this week? Some people call this "the verbing of nouns," but that itself is a prime example. Perhaps it has something to do with the word "coach" itself, which is widely used as both a noun and a verb.

RELATED NEWS/ARCHIVE

We had moved on from Tuesday's liberal usage of the word "influx" as a verb, but then we see a story in Wednesday's Times-West Virginian, in which West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, discussing his team's 30-19 loss to USF on Friday, explains that "We got outathleted at a couple of positions." Bonus points to the Times-West Virginian, by the way, for putting the word in 'single quotes,' which is our industry's subtle way of saying "Deep down, we know this isn't really a word."

Again, everybody knows exactly what he means, but ... you can't dictionary that word, so to speak. I will admit to frequent use of "blog" as a verb, but that's fairly accepted, and even "live-blog" as a verb, but that's really just a 21st-century update on saying you will "pen" a story. I now encourage you to comment, er, make comments freely.

-- One more update -- after learning Tuesday that USF quarterback B.J. Daniels would be working with Bulls softball coach Ken Eriksen on his sliding technique, I found a cool precedent in the Seattle Times. Seems that current Redskins coach Jim Zorn, while working as an assistant with his old team, the Seahawks, brought in Mariners star John Olerud as a sliding consultant -- paid, no doubt, on a sliding scale -- to work with his quarterbacks on their slides. He also brought in Tigers pitcher Frank Tanana when he worked with the Lions -- surely, there was an actual major-league hitter he could have found, no?

About the blog

South Florida Bulls fans, you've come to the right place: the USF Sports Bulletin blog. Tampa Bay Times sportswriter Joey Knight, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin, and we invite your participation in the comments area. Follow the Times' coverage of USF athletics on Twitter.